Unerupted Incisors and Associated Dental Anomalies in Southern Chinese Children

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the association between unerupted permanent incisors and dental anomalies among southern Chinese children and adolescents. METHODS: A retrospective audit was conducted at the paediatric dentistry clinic of the University of Hong Kong dental teaching hospital. Clinical records of patients who attended the clinic between January 2004 and December 2013 were retrieved and those who had at least one unerupted permanent incisor were identified. After obtaining a list of patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria, all available records, including clinical notes, photographs, radiographs, and study casts were retrieved to obtain the neccesary information. A search for the presence or absence of any dental anomalies was done from all the available records of the included patients. Categorization of the dental anomalies was done by the developmental stage at which they arise. The proportion among occurrence of various dental anomalies with unerupted permanent incisors was compared with Chi-square test. Binomial test was used to determine any difference in proportion between presence and absence of dental anomalies. The significance value was set at 5%. RESULTS: Dental anomalies were identified among 73% of patients with unerupted incisors. For the unerupted maxillary central incisors, a significantly (p<0.001) higher proportion was associated with the supernumerary teeth, whereas for unerupted maxillary lateral incisors a significantly (p<0.001) higher proportion was associated with ectopic eruption of permanent canines when compared with other groups of dental anomalies. Binomial test showed that there was highly significant (p<0.001) difference in between presence and absence of dental anomalies. Ectopic eruption of canine, double teeth and hyperdontia were significantly higher among male patients presented with unerupted incisors.